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Wednesday, 22 May 2013

Who doesn’t love scrambled eggs? Soft, fluffy, light eggs full of butter and milk- to be eaten with a tinge of guilt because really, butter isn’t allowed.

There are many different kinds of scrambled
eggs one can make, some local to a region, some to a religion, some just to
tastes. Take for example scrambled eggs with cheese and smoked salmon, or egg
burji, which is a spicy dish eaten as a preferred breakfast item in India. I have to break here to tell you that Parsis love their eedu (the Parsi/ Gujarati word for eggs). I've heard stories of uncles and cousins and older relatives eating ten eggs a day and I'm not sure how exaggerated they are. Almost everything can be eaten 'par eedu' which translates to 'on eggs'... be it tomatoes, wafers,

sali (fried potato straws), potato, bhindi, kheema... anything can become par eedu. One of my recent favorites is the Parsi version of scrambled eggs – Acoori.

I say recent favorites because acoori is made
with big pieces of chopped onions, which took a lot of getting used to. But get
used to it I did. We make it on weekends out of town and eat it with local pao
– both naram (soft) and kadak (hard) and butter. Its spicy, tangy and best left
slightly liquid in texture – all the better for piling onto a piece of toasted
bread and butter. I disgust my friends by eating any and all scrambled eggs
with jam, but hey… that’s just me. (Have you tried a sausage egg McMuffin with
jam? It will change your world.)

Egg McStuffin

Khandala Acoori (makes enough for 2)

Made in khandala, please excuse the lack of coloured utensils.. we be roughing it!

You will need

6 eggs

Way too many yellows!

2 tomatoes grated and chopped up

2 onions (or 1 very large one) finely chopped

1 handful fresh green chili finely chopped

ugh.. onion!

3 cloves garlic finely chopped

1 handful coriander (also known as kothmir
also known as cilantro)

A splash of milk

1 teaspoon red chili powder

1 teaspoon haldi or turmeric powder

The masala box... needs refilling

Salt

Pepper

Step 1

Sautee the onion and garlic in a pan with a
little oil until the onion is soft and translucent. (I avoid using butter, for some reason I just cant bring myself to do
it.)

Step 1

Step 2

Add 1 teaspoon chili powder and 1 teaspoon
haldi powder and let it cook for a few minutes. (You may need to add a little more oil here)

Step 2

Step 3

Add the chilis and the tomatos and stir. Give
the masala time to cook – I would say 5 minutes or even slightly more in order
to avoid the taste of chili powder later.

It should look like this

Step 4

In a bowl, whisk the eggs together until
they’re frothy. Add a splash of milk, salt and pepper and whisk again.

Whisked eggs

Step 5

Lower the flame on the pan and add the egg
mixture. Start stirring very gently, but constantly.

Slowly stir the egg mixture

Step 6

The trick to making scrambled eggs is to keep
taking the eggs off the heat, stirring all the while. It allows you to make the
eggs as loose or tight as you want to.

Eggs off the heat

Step 7

Add the coriander a minute before you remove
the eggs, and put in a large colorful bowl to serve.

Wednesday, 8 May 2013

Some days, spending a night in can produce
wondrous results. Rather than go out one weekend we decided to stay home and
try our hand at cooking. I’ve been hoarding some incredible new cookbooks and
that weekend seemed like the weekend to try something new. As you know, I love
Nigella and find her recipes the easiest to reproduce, they look almost like
they do in her books.

Oddly, I watched an episode of Nigellisima
this week which had the same combination so I guess we weren’t completely off
the mark!

Tuscan Fries a la Nigella

You will need

Potatoes – cut into chips, but not peeled

Vegetable oil to fry, and lots of it

Whole garlic clove

Rosemary

Thyme

Basil

Step 1

I know one normally peels potatoes, but this
recipe calls for them unpeeled, which is fantastic because the skin gets super
crispy at the end. Put the potatoes in a liter (or more) of cold oil and start
your stove. Make sure the potatoes are
completely covered in the oil.(This
method took us by surprise. I’m a big fan of avoiding oil unless necessary, and
the thought of boiling chips in oil was a little scary. Luckily the chips don’t
retain that much oil, they just fluff up a whole lot more than if you were to
make them the normal way.)

So much oil

Step 2

Leave the oil and potats to come to the boil,
which should take a good twenty minutes.
Don’t stir them; in fact try not to look at them for the first fifteen
minutes. (Get started on your dessert, or
the marinade for the main course)

Step 3

Gently stir the chips and unstick anything
that has clumped together or stuck to the pan. Add your garlic to the oil and
stir once more. Leave alone for another 10 minutes. (Is the marinade ready? Are the steaks at room temperature?)

Step 4

At this point, make sure you’re watching the
pan so you don’t burn the chips. There’s an instant where they suddenly go from
delicious to destroyed and you need to be on the correct side of that second.
Test the chips out to make sure they’re crisp outside and tender inside.

Step 5

Add the herbs and stir again. You will only
need a few minutes after this before you can scoop out the chips onto a platter
lined with kitchen paper to absorb any extra oil. Add salt flakes, make sure
the herbs are still on the plate and eat immediately. Yum.

How tempting is that

Drying out

Ah perfect

Now, finish your main course. You’re having

Steak Tagliata, once again a la Nigella

You will need

1 or 2 fillets of steak

Oregano

Red chilli flakes

Red wine vinegar

½ cup Olive oil

A handful of cherry tomatoes

Step 1

In a shallow bowl, combine olive oil, a
splash of red wine vinegar, chili flakes and oregano. Mix and set aside.

Marinade chilling

Step 2

Place the fillets on the gas, and cook them
for 2 to 2 and a half minutes a side depending on thickness of the steak. You
want them rare, but not bloody.

Step 3

Once the fillets are cooked, add them to the
marinade and let them rest for 2 minutes a side. This gives the steak a chance
to absorb the flavours of the marinade, and the marinade a chance to enjoy some
yummy steak juice.

Step 4

Slice the steaks into thin strips and put on
a plate. Dribble the marinade over them and add a handful of halved cherry
tomatoes. Serve hot and serve immediately.

yummy

An accompaniment

pretty please with a cherry tomato on top

If this isn't enough to stuff you (it isn't, is it?), make room for dessert. A meringue is the most difficult thing to perfect and i have been trying with varying successes for the last few years. This one came out almost perfect.

Strawberries & Cream Pavalova

You will need

4 egg whites

200 gms castor sugar (50 gms sugar to 1 egg white)

A pinch of salt

Fresh strawberries, hulled & sliced

Cold heavy cream

I suggest making this first, putting it in the oven and forgetting about it. It takes over an hour to cook so you have enough time to make it, bake it, eat your dinner, take a break and then have dessert.

Put the egg whites into a mixing bowl, making sure there is not even a spec of yellow in there. Make sure there is no moisture in the bowl or on the mixer you use - even one drop of water can spoil the consistency of a meringue. Whip the egg whites on a medium speed until they're frothy and ever so slightly stiff. They should rise considerably.

(In the Mumbai heat, be very careful that you don't whip too quickly, and watch that the eggs don't fall. If they do, you'll have to start over.)

Step 2

Once the egg whites are stiff, slowly start adding the castor sugar. There are a lot of recipes that say add it all at once but I find the slower you add it, the more time the sugar has to combine with the egg whites and the glossier it gets.

Shiny, glossy meringue in the making

Step 3

Add the salt too. You know the meringue is ready when they don't move while you're shaking the bowl. Jamie Oliver likes to test his by turning the bowl over his head, however it's not something I'm eager to do even the risk of egg whites in my hair is enough to deter me.

Step 4

Using a metal spoon (not wooden or plastic) spread the meringue out on a sheet of baking paper making one large disc. I like to take a tiny bit of the mixture and dab it on all 4 corners of the sheet to keep it down. It's easier than using butter.

Style the meringue as you will, but remember to use the back of your spoon to create a slight dent in the centre where your topping will go.

Step 5

Place it in the oven for 2 hours and go about your day. Check in on it at 1 hour 30, 1 hour 45 and 1 hour 55. If the meringue starts browning too much, turn the oven temperature down.

Step 6

When the meringue is done, turn the oven off and leave the door slightly open. Leave it in there to cool and dry out as long as you can. (I know some people who make this the night before and leave it in overnight to cool).

Step 7

Using a hand held mixer or beater, whip the cream until it thickens and spread onto the meringue base. Scatter strawberries at will and garnish with a few mint leaves if you fancy it.

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